What will you do?
Hey Judge, you going to run the printing presses? Oh, wait, a state can’t mint money.
So, Judge, you moron, when Illinois runs out of money and can’t pay YOU, what will you do?
Idiot.
There’s a third option.
Bankruptcy.
And if the Unions push it and it arrives they may well wish they had made a deal now.
Actually, the only real question is: Is a legislature’s budget making ability sovereign or not? Can previous legislatures lock out any and all budgetary choices?
If the answer is no, it is not sovereign, what’s the point of elections? One single legislature could enact an eternal budget and it is all done with.
Seems to me to be a dance that the courts have tried mightily not step out to, but the music’s growing louder.
Uh huh, leftscum.
Directed at the author of this bilge, not you, mdittmar.
We need the same judge to explain to Obama that he can’t just ignore the law and do whatever the hell he wants.
Yet the same courts overturned traditional marriage state constitutional amendments in a heart beat...
They will automatically reduce when the fund runs out of money due to union mismanagement.
We have it figured out in CA. We just don’t talk about it since there is not one Elected Republican holding State Wide Office.
The multi Billion Dollar unfunded Pension Liability must have disappeared overnight. I wonder where it went?
Bankruptcy is the other route.
Federal law will then allow them to cut bennies.
If the article is accurate, it sounds like the decision was correct. Bad idea to have that in your state constitution though.
Consider that sorry state file bankruptcy? Then the Trough Feeders can be told to take what ever they get.
Doubtlessly, even then they will get more than they deserve, like Pooblik Skrewl Collective edumacators.
The taxpayers shouldn't be punished by the failure of politicians, either.
A third way is to cut other areas of the budget to pay the retirees. Probably not a popular choice, but residents would no doubt prefer that to rising taxes. But there's probably so much in the budget that's mandatory spending, that it can't be cut much.
I said this for months before they passed this useless piece of crap. The Illinois State Constitution is crystal clear on the matter. THAT’S why my home state is so completely screwed.
The only remedy is to modify the Illinois Constitutuon. And that ain’t gonna happen.
L
I wonder how the Federal Bankruptcy judge will rule when they finally go bankrupt.
Since Judge Belz didn’t recuse himself, I presume that he’s NOT a member of one of the Illinois systems and therefore was not conflicted.
But the Illinois Circuit is a state court system, so this makes me wonder whether he was deciding on his own benefits.
They can’t cut benefits - not without changing the constitution.
Benefits are an entrenched clause and a law cutting them is unconstitutional.
The judge’s hands were tied. I would have ruled the same way.